First Christmas In Two Years
Jingle Jam Ends
AJR played their last song and after a failed encore cheer from the crowd, we all filed out to go home. When we were almost at the door I saw Mom and I told Anna and Jordan I had to go. I hugged both of them goodbye and told Anna, “I'll see you in March!” Anna smiled and walked out the door to begin her next adventure…
New Story
Before I could get across the crowd to where Mom was out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw someone. I approached this person and sure enough, it was my coworker from New Story Mandy. We hugged and I asked her who she came to see. She said she loves AJR and I explained that Ryan plays in Cousin Simple. After we talked about that for a second Mandy asked, “Are you excited for next week?”
I was! The following week was our last week of school before break and so they were going to be some celebrations. I was so excited because as you may recall last Christmas everyone in my family, except for me got covid. Since they could all be together I was forced into the attic alone over the holiday. While I was able to look on the “Bright Side Of Life” at that moment, I was definitely looking forward to celebrating Christmas for the first time in two years!
The following week on Wednesday most of the staff at New Story brought in cookies. Thursday was Pajama day and Friday was ugly sweater day. After work on Friday, a few coworkers and I went out for a drink. After that, I went to my coworkers’ Clo and Lucy’s house with another coworker of ours.
Grandma Opper’s Cookies
My great-grandma Grandma Opper had her very own Christmas cookie recipe. Every year Mom's side of the family gets together and we make the cookies. We made the cookies at my aunt Melissa and uncle Andy's house. Their children, Alex, Maci, Nicholas, and Ellie, along with Alex's girlfriend, Emma, Josh’s girlfriend, Sophia, our grandma (Nimba), our cousin Lexi, our aunt Erin, aunt Cyndi and her children, Caitlin and Cameron all helped in the baking and decorating. After we finished making the cookies the cousins went to see Spider-Man The Way Home, which was awesome! After that Mom, Dad, Ryan and I, went to an ugly Christmas sweater party!
Shopping
Throughout our childhood, my “sister” Arden would take me Christmas shopping because she's really good at it and quite frankly it overwhelms me. As a result, I haven't gone Christmas shopping since Arden moved to Colorado in 2019. Dad owns an art studio called Kobolt and the day before Christmas Eve was their company Christmas party. We just went out to lunch, but it was a fun time! As we were walking back to the studio Mom asked me If had gotten all my Christmas shopping done. “No…” I said, “I don't know what to get anyone!” One of the employees told me just to go for it, and with Mom and Dad’s help, I bought gifts that mostly everyone was happy with!
Christmas Day
On Christmas Eve my family went to Mass, ate dinner, and got ready for bed. Christmas morning we said the rosary as we always do and then we went downstairs to open the presents. After we had opened all of our gifts and I had said hi to the Andersons, we drove back to Melissa & Andy's. We ate lunch/dinner and then started our yearly white elephant game.
Most years there are a lot of joke gifts, and while there were a few this year, most of them were still usable. I said most… Cyndi's fiance, Jeremy managed to get the majority of the joke gifts. One of them was a twerking game. While it was kind of funny when people were playing it… I will say I'm officially scarred for life.
Every year, Alex, Emma, Maci, Nicholas, Ellie, my brothers and I, play a game of Blackjack with Uncle Andy as the dealer. I think this started as a way for Andy to teach us, the dangers of gambling. I usually leave fairly early in the game, And this time when I left, Cyndi and Mom were singing karaoke. I joined them and eventually so did the rest of the party. Cyndi kept the karaoke going until about 12:30 at night. I’m so happy that I got to spend Christmas with my friends and family!
Hope you had a Greattastic Christmas!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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